Princeton University will commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. with its annual King Day celebration on Monday, Jan. 19, in Richardson Auditorium of Alexander Hall. Doors open at 1 p.m. Cecilia Rouse, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, will give the keynote address.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 1:15 p.m. with a performance by the Trenton Children's Chorus.
During the program, the University will present the MLK Day Journey Award, recognizing members of the Princeton faculty, staff or student body who best represents King's continued journey.
Rouse is the Lawrence and Shirley Katzman and Lewis and Anna Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education and a professor of economics and public affairs at the Wilson School. A well-known scholar of the economics of education, Rouse is the founding director of the Princeton Education Research Section and a member of the National Academy of Education. She is a senior editor of The Future of Children, a policy journal published by the Wilson School and the Brookings Institution, and serves on the editorial board of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
From 2009 to 2011, Rouse served as a member of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, a three-member panel that provides the president with analysis and advice on a wide range of domestic and international economic policy issues. She worked in the White House at the National Economic Council from 1998 to 1999.
Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 after earning her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, where she also completed her undergraduate work.
The King Day event will be webcast live. It is convened and coordinated by the institutional equity and diversity team in the offices of the provost and human resources.
